


Trouble with the Double Bar B

by AllTrekkedUp



Category: Laramie (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Developing Relationship, Drinking, Fights, Gun Violence, Kissing, M/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26088397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTrekkedUp/pseuds/AllTrekkedUp
Summary: Jess has to deal with his past when a new rancher comes to Laramie.  With all the signs of a range war on the horizon Jess has to make the decision to put his gun to use in the way that he used to in order to save the Sherman ranch.
Relationships: Jess Harper/Slim Sherman
Comments: 13
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a long time since Texas, since Kansas, since a lot of places where Jess Harper was known as a gunman. He didn't remember when exactly it was that he decided to turn from his stock and trade, a profession, if you wanted to call it that, he had been in off and on since after the war. Or if it was a conscious decision at all, he had been struggling with the path of his life while en route to another job, a hundred dollars a month plus cartridges at a ranch in Montana. On his way he had stopped off at this Sherman way station and that, as they say, was that. The Shermans had totally changed his life, especially Slim, and though he had his moments of wandering he knew he had found a home.

That was nearly two years ago now, in that time he and Slim had become close. Friends first but most recently, more than that, they had been together for about three months and everything seemed to be wonderful. Jonesy had taken Andy away for school so it was just the two of them at the ranch, they made out okay once they figured out who cooked best and how to dust and mop regularly, they did miss the two a great deal however. Things seemed to be wonderful, until one evening in early September when Slim came home from a trip into town. 

Jess was at the stove, apron, flour spotted shirt and all, frying chicken and keeping an eye on the apple pie he had in the oven. When he heard a wagon pull up he got the chicken on a plate and pulled the pie out, determined not to burn anything, and went out the kitchen door in the dusky light to help Slim unload. The tall, blonde man was already carrying feed sacks into the barn when Jess got out there, he pulled one out and joined in the carrying.

"Oh hey," Slim grinned when he saw his partner. They stopped half way between the wagon and barn and shared a little kiss.

"Hey. You sure took a while in town considering this don't look like half of what was on your list," Jess said.

"Well, I went to the bank and paid on our note. Then I went for our supplies but they didn't have everything at the store, there's a new rancher in the area and he bought out a lot of things. I met him while I was there and we got to talking, ended up over at the saloon and had a couple of drinks," Slim explained.

"And so the truth comes out. You spent half the day drinking in the saloon," Jess said. He put the last sack down and went and got a basket of goods out of the wagon seat as they went inside.

Slim laughed and opened the door for him. "Not exactly. Did you get the stage off okay?" he asked.

Jess sat the basket down and started taking food to the table. "Smooth as molasses. Though Mose agreed with me that you were just loafin' in town to get out of work," he said.

Slim chuckled as he washed his face and hands in a bowl on the other side of the kitchen. "And did you miss me?" he asked. 

"Well…" Jess grinned.

Slim hit him on the arm with the towel he dried off with and they laughed. 

Slim sat down at the table. "I'll eat and then tend to the horses. This smells good, Jess," he said.

Jess sat down at the end of the table, to Slim's right. "Well I hope it all turned out. Got the recipe from the parson's wife for everything, she even promised she'd teach me how to cook other things if I wanted. If we're gonna have to survive without Jonesy I might have to take her up on it," he said.

"Well, by the way this tastes you'll get no complaints from me," Slim said.

Jess took a few bites and had a sip of coffee before he spoke again. "You said you met a new rancher today. Where has he took up livin'?" he asked.

"To the northeast of us. He bought the old Steadmayer place, gonna change the name of it to the Double Bar B," Slim informed.

"That's a big spread, take a lot of work to get it going again," Jess said.

"Work and money. But he seems well off, his name is Noell. Simon Noell," Slim said.

Jess nearly choked on his coffee at hearing that name, he coughed. It was a name out of his past, someone he hoped had forgotten about him and wouldn't cause him any trouble.

"You okay?" Slim asked.

"Uh, yeah. Musta went down the wrong way," Jess covered.

"But this Noell seems like a nice enough fella. Hopefully he'll be a good neighbor to us," Slim said.

"Yeah, I hope so too," Jess agreed. But he had a bad feeling settle in the pit of his stomach, one that made him feel jumpy. He knew already that there would be trouble with the Double Bar B.


	2. Chapter 2

Jess tossed and turned that night, he kept thinking about Simon Noell, it caused him to rise early and feed the stock before heading out onto the range. It was Slim's turn to cook so he didn't have anything to do in the house, he left the man still sleeping in bed. It was cool enough for him to put on his coat before heading out to ride fence, letting his horse go at a gallop made the wind smart his face. 

Arriving at their north fence line he saw a couple of sections were down, barbed wire curled up to the fence posts. Dismounting he thought it fortunate that they weren't running stock in that section at the moment. He looked at the wire still attached to the post first, thumbing it with his gloved hand, his forehead creased and he frowned. Bending down he looked at the rest of the wire, and did the same with the other piece, it was sharp but not twisted or rusty, in Jess's mind it could only have been cut. He mounted up again and looked over at the land on the other side of their fence, it was Noell's property now and Jess knew it had to be some of his cowboys who cut the fence. He knew he had to go home and tell Slim, get some things to fix the gaps with and come back, that uneasiness hit him again, trouble had already started.

When he rode in he saw a horse at their hitching rail and knew they had company. He tied his alongside it and went in the front door to find their friend, sheriff Mort Corey, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. Jess stopped to take off his hat and coat, stuffing his gloves down in his belt.

"There's your wayward boy, Slim," Mort smiled.

"I told you his belly would bring him home. Now you can talk to him yourself," Slim said. He was at the stove.

"Talk to me about what?" Jess asked. He sat down at the table and didn't hesitate to reach across and take the cup Slim had been drinking out of and pour more coffee in it for himself. 

"Well, I wanted to ride out and tell you about this new fella in town. Before you came in and met him unaware. Said his name is Dagean, he was asking after you, if you lived in Laramie. I didn't say anything because he looked like the gunman type," Mort said.

Jess looked down into his cup and sighed. "Lefty Dagean?" he asked.

"That's him. I looked but didn't find any posters on him," Mort said.

Slim sat down to join them, finding his cup in use he grinned at Jess and got himself a new one.

"You won't. Not this far north anyway. But he is wanted, down in Texas, New Mexico territory and probably Arizona territory too. He is a gun hand, real smooth operator, not that he's fast as some men, but that he catches them by surprise. Wears his gun on the right, draws with the left. Carries a knife too, he's real deadly at throwing it," Jess said, his brow furrowed.

"Did you...fight him?" Slim asked. He knew Jess's past to an extent, he never pushed for the man to tell him anything. To him what was past was past and there was only now and the future, but sometimes when Jess did talk about his life before it was chilling to hear the tales.

"No. But I worked with him some," Jess said. His distant eyes shifting down into the blackness of his coffee.

"Then he wouldn't be out to get you? Since you're friends? Or were?" Slim asked.

"Slim, you should know by now that a hired gun has no friends. You sell your gun to the highest bidder and be better than the next fella. He would kill me alright, for five hundred dollars or five cents, so long as he was paid," Jess said.

"Well, let's hope it don't come to killing. I'll keep an eye on him while he is in town, if he don't get employed in the next few days I'll have a talk with him," Mort said. He stood up and put his hat on.

Jess kept his mouth firmly closed, thinking.

Mort put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Keep your head down," he smiled.

Jess smiled up at him. "I won't. I won't be going into town either, ole Hardrock over here will keep me workin'," he said.

Slim and Mort laughed.

"I'll be seeing you boys," Mort waved before going out the door.

"Have a good ride back to town!" Slim called.

Jess nibbled on a piece of bacon and Slim noted after a few minutes how quiet he had gotten. He reach over for his free hand.

"That man troubling you?" he asked.

"Lots a things. I just have a feeling that Lefty is already employed by Simon Noell," Jess said.

Slim looked at him curious. "Are you suggesting that Noell hired Dagean to have you killed? But why?" he asked.

"Well, a couple of years ago Noell wired me in Kansas, asked me to work for him. He had a big ranch in Montana and offered good pay so I said I would come. Only thing is I stopped off here and just never left," Jess said.

"So you think he would hire a man to kill you after these years just because you didn't show up?" Slim asked, trying to understand. 

"Well, I don't know. I know it might sound crazy but I just know that there will be trouble from Noell and Lefty too, now that he's here. Noell was a big man in Montana, but he liked open range and that's why he wanted gunmen. This morning when I was checking fence I saw wire down on the north range where his place borders. It looks to have been cut," Jess explained.

"Now, Jess, you know fence goes down all the time. That's why we ride it to check it," Slim said.

"I know that but I checked it and it's sharp like it was cut!" Jess said.

"Alright. But we can't prove that Noell did it, or that he is anything but a man getting a fresh start here in Laramie. We'll just go out and patch the fence and if anything else suspicious happens we'll tell Mort. We can't go off half cocked and start accusing people," Slim reasoned.

"You're right," Jess sighed.

Slim grinned. "I wish you would say that more," he said. 

Jess smirked and started to say something but Slim got up and leaned down to kiss him. Washing away all his stormy thoughts and bad temper. 

"Now, let's go fix that fence. I'll do the dishes later," Slim said.

"Okay, I'll race you when we get the stuff together," Jess smiled.

"Only then? I'll beat you to the barn!" Slim smiled. He took off for the kitchen door and Jess out the front, laughing their way out to the barn.

As they got their things together Jess started to think that maybe he was reading too much into everything. Slim certainly made it seem that way. But Slim made a lot of things better and perhaps being close to him would help Jess handle whatever came their way a little less hot tempered than usual.


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

A few days passed with no trouble, only hard work passed the time and Slim was glad that Jess appeared to have calmed down. However he didn't feel at ease, he knew Jess didn't either, there was a jumpiness to him, something that made your skin crawl, it was in the air like a lightning storm brooding on the horizon. 

It had been about a week, they were now in need of the supplies they were unable to get when Slim went into town. It was agreed that Jess would go this time as there was an official for the stage line coming in on the noon and Slim wanted to talk to him. Jess hitched up the wagon and headed for town by nine, with luck he could be back at the ranch by supper. It was mid-week and Laramie was quiet in the early hours, not many people on the street when Jess pulled up in front of the store, he hopped down and pulled a list out of his top pocket before walking in.

The store was stacked with crates and sacks and stacked bolts of cloth, Jess could barely get through to the counter for it. Fred Neems, the owner of the store came through from the back, directing two men with crates where to put them. Jess had to side step to give them room, once they had put them down and headed to the back once again Mr. Neems noticed he had a customer. 

"Jess! I'm sorry for the mess. I gotta freight wagon out back right now and we're just unloadin'," Mr. Neems said. He was a middle aged man, balding on top with a gray mustache, thin and about the same size as Jess.

"That's okay, Fred. Think you can fill this?" Jess asked. He handed over his list.

Mr. Neems studied it a moment. "I can. May take me awhile to find everything under this mess," he said, looking around.

"Well that's alright. How 'bout if I go over to the saloon and have a couple of drinks, maybe visit with Mort and come back?" Jess asked.

"That'd be good, give me plenty of time to fill your order," Mr. Neems said. 

"I'll see you later then," Jess said. He turned and headed out as Mr. Neems got to work.

Jess headed down the street and across towards the saloon with the ringing of the blacksmith's hammer in his ears. He eased through those swinging doors and lazily rested himself against the bar, leaning on his elbows.

"Give me a whiskey, Pat," he ordered.

The tall, overweight bartender obliged with the clink of a glass on the bar and popping the cork on the bottle to pour. Jess took a sip to savor the burn, he was in no hurry to finish.

"Harper. Jess Harper."

Jess raised his head and looked through the mirror hanging behind the bar, he saw a blonde haired, blue eyed man with a toothy grin looking back at him from a table. He knew the voice the moment he heard it and the sight made his whiskey sour on his stomach- Lefty Dagean.

"I been asking after you, Jess. Oh uh, you remember me don't you?" Lefty continued to smile.

Jess turned around to face him. "Yeah, I remember you. What are you doing around these parts?" he asked. 

"I work on a ranch outta town. Of course today is my day off and you know I always did like to get smashed. Come and join me," Lefty offered. 

Jess hesitated a moment, he didn't want to but felt it best to go ahead instead of making a scene which he knew Lefty would. He took up his glass and walked the few steps back to Lefty's table, pulling out a chair to sit down with him.

"I heard tell you ain't in the business no more. Is that really true?" Lefty asked. He looked at Jess from over the rim of his glass before tipping it back. 

"Yeah that's true. I found me a place here, puttin' down some roots. It's hard work but it's worth it," Jess commented. His eyes never left the gunfighter, he saw he still wore his gun the way he used to just like Mort had described. If that was so then Jess figured he still kept his knife in a pocket inside his jacket.

"What caused that? You was makin' good money before. Did you find somebody?" Lefty asked. He let on like he was actually interested. 

"Maybe. Listen, Lefty, what's this all about? We weren't exactly pals in the old days," Jess said. He wanted to come to the point, he didn't like being around Lefty.

"Well now, that's true. To be forward with you Jess, my boss wants to see you. Mr. Noell," Lefty said. He poured some more whiskey in his glass from the bottle he had in the middle of the table.

"So he does. What does he want to see me about?" Jess asked.

"That'd be his business. All I know is that he wants to see you and then he wants me to kill you," Lefty grinned.

Jess felt anger rise up in him, honestly he had expected this so it was no shock. "Why? What'd I do to get on his bad side?" he asked.

"I don't know. You'll have to ask him that when you see him. What I know is that once he speaks his peace with you he wants me to take care of you as it were. Since it's true you ain't in the business no more you'll be an easy target," Lefty held his grin.

Jess got up in a quick, jerking motion, his chair scooting back audibly. "Well you tell Mr. Noell that if he wants to talk to me he'll have to come and face me like a man instead of sending his bird dog around. Or you can tell him to go to blazes if you feel like it, I don't care which!" he said. 

"I'll be sure to convey that," Lefty assured.

Jess dropped some money on the bar and stalked out. He headed back over towards the store still hot under the collar, but there was a fear underneath that anger. A fear that he would have to kill a man just like in the old days and he didn't want that. Not again, not here and not with Slim around to get caught in the crossfire. He wished this wasn't happening at all, but he guessed it was true what they say- your sins always find you out.


End file.
